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by SS at 9:43 pm on Sunday 21st July

We took yesterday as an impromptu rest day after doubling up on Friday. That was nice since my parents had just driven up to the Alps for the weekend in a heroic effort by my father - they left Watford at 10am nand reached St. Jean de Maurienne at 1:15am. We spent the whole day mainly carb loading on cake and fondue and relaxing in their rented chalet in Valfrejeurs, a ski resort just a short distance (but 700m above) where we were staying in Modane.

Today we set off early after a couple of pain raisins (each), preparing for an epic climb into Italy. Our quieter alternate route to the infamous D1009 took us nearly half a kilometre higher but then took us back down again as it rejoined the D road. When we hit the D road, we turned off towards Turing and took our 'optimised' route which took us over a footpath which was sort of cycleable but definitely not with our load and bike setup. It was basically a semi-steep grass hillside which cut the loop off the highway. It almost certainly took us longer than the road route but was a fun element of variety to an otherwise entirely paved tour.

Soon after we hit the road again, we turned right onto a road over the Col de Mont Cenis, a hill (mountain even?) that sat between us and Italy. It was a long climb up on which we were beleaguered by a merciless and slowly growing entourage of midges. This climb took us by a thousand feet to 2015m, over what must have been around 10 miles. We saw very few cyclists travelling in the same direction (although we were overtaken by a couple of unladen roadies near the top) but many coming the opposite way at a surprisingly slow speed.

The other interest fact was that the traffic was primarily into France from Italy, perhaps a reflection more of the time of day than of each country's relative economic situations. Motorcyclists seemed to love this road and I've made a mental note to come back one day with a motorcycle.

We reached the top without stopping at all, possibly a little reckless but once I found my pace, I was anxious not to lose it. There were some stunning views out over the valley we had just climbed out of but the persistence of the midges, the traffic passing at speed and the sheer grind of trying to climb meant that we were primarily looking at either our front wheels or the road just in front of them.

When we reached the top (after passing a farm selling home made cheese - what a location!), we stopped for a snack - Casino value cereal bars and Intermarche budget cookies. Both of these didn't taste so great, predictably, but they were good enough to get the faint taste of sweat and blood out of my mouth. After helping a trio of motorcyclists take a photo with the sign at the top of the hill, I put some arm warmers on and we headed downhill, all the way to Italy.

Not more than a hundred metres from the summit of the hill the beautifully blue coloured water of the Lac du Mont Cenis came into view. A few kilometres further, we encountered the most magnificent traffic jam, filled with motorcyclists, caravans and many many cars. After trying to work out why there were so many people parked here, we asked an Italian runner (wearing matching running shorts and a sleeveless top) who explained that there was a big running and mountain bike race that had use finished. Despite having just run 15km, he seemed impressed that we were cycling to Brindisi. I'm not sure I could run 15km, so the feeling of respect was mutual.

This became clear as we continued on down the road to pass the finishing straight and the occasional pair of runners with numbers beyond that. At this point the descending really began and it was just amazing.

It took me a little while to warm up but I was comfortable on these roads quickly, with their smooth and dry surface, relatively light traffic and with plenty of space for both lanes of traffic. I soon got to grips with how my bike handles under heavy braking and the sorts of lines I could take through corners. With the new carbon fork, steering is a lot more aggressive and I really started to get into the corners. Traffic in our direction was light but motorcycles coming the other way were overtaking adventurously and veering out into our lane while doing so, it took some quick reactions to get out of their way in time.

After what didn't seem like very long but was actually several miles, we saw our first sign indicating that we had crossed into Italy! There was no real border as such so we took our photo opportunity there and continued on down the wonderful descent where we almost managed to get to 70kmph. Sadly a slow moving RV decided to overtake us on a corner and we were stuck behind him for some time until Phil got another mysterious puncture on the inside of his tube. Once he had replaced his tube (and we had marvelled at how warm our rims had become from all the braking), we finished the last couple of miles to arrive in Susa just after noon. It was quite a short day at just 41 75 miles over 3.21.40 (an average of 12.4) and we could probably have pushed onto Turin but it is hard to know these things when planning the route on a computer so far from the actual terrain!

As we arrived in Susa, the main throughway in town was shut and all we could hear was a drumming sound. As we filtered to the front of traffic, we noticed a procession of men, women and children wearing ornate old fashioned robes, interleaved with drummers wearing similar uniform. There were 6 different colours in all, representing what we guessed were their districts in town. Our hotel manager explained that today was a festival of sorts celebrating the history of Susa and we spent most of the afternoon in a Roman amphitheatre watching friendly games where the various factions (or Borghis) competed against each other. First up was archery, which was extremely boring for the latter 5 of the 6 rounds they decided were necessary. Next was jousting, which was quite amusing and a little worrying as the rambunctious horses looked as if they might through their riders off. Finally about 10 men from each faction competed in a tug of war competition against each other team.

After all this competition, we headed to a pizzeria where the food came quicker than the amount of time it took to initially place an order. Anish was right in saying that Italy is considerably better for vegetarians, not only did they have a vegetariano pizza but many of their other options were also without meat. I had a 'Popeye' pizza with ricotta and spinach (and without tomato sauce) which was fantastically delicious. Nom.

Tomorrow is a long day to Alessandria but there should be three positives. Firstly, our hotel includes breakfast (as most Italian hotels seem to), so I am optimistic for something a little more substantial than a pastry. Secondly, we're hoping to pass through Turin for lunch, which should be very scenic. Finally, the elevation profile for the day looks like a descending staircase - hopefully making the 92 miles less arduous.

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